At Masaka, a small trading center on the western shore of Lake Victoria, they met with disappointment. For the two native trackers put on the trail of Mabele by Mr. Ransome appeared the first night after their arrival with the news that their had managed to them.
They had seen him enter a lake village one night, where he found shelter in a native hut. And believing him safe for the night, they themselves had done likewise, for they had spent several days sticking to his trail through broken country of hill and and were .
Arising early the next day, however, they had discovered on that Mabele had slipped away. And cautious developed that a native canoe also was missing. Putting two and two together, they had come to the conclusion that Mabele had taken to the lake. Although they believed they had kept out of his sight all the way and had given him no suspicion of their presence, yet it was likely he suspected he was being trailed and had taken to the lake to shake off pursuit.
Their one was that an hour or two after their discovery of Mabele’s flight one of the sudden storms for which Lake Victoria is had arisen, accompanied by rolling thunder, lightning and a swishing downpour of rain. Later in the day, after the storm had departed and the waters of the lake had , a native fisherman had brought in the stolen canoe which had been found overturned and floating a mile out from shore. It was their belief, therefore, that Mabele had been drowned. And as on their journey from that point to Masaka they had inquired of every native encountered if a man had been picked up in the lake or had been observed coming to shore, without result, they were confirmed in this belief.
“I don’t know about that,” said Mr. Hampton thoughtfully, in talking the matter over in a general conference later. “He may have managed to reach shore without being observed. And in that case he is on his way to his confederates with word of our coming to the disturbed regions with you, Ransome, as a spy and not merely a member of our exploring and picture-taking party. However, the boys feel so strongly that they want to proceed that I shall chance it. We must all be very much on our guard, however.”
“Bully for you, Dad,” said , enthusiastically. “We can take care of ourselves, never fear. We’ve been in tight fixes before, you know.”
“Yes, I know,” sighed Mr. Hampton, half-humorously, as he regarded his son and the two other boys with a twinkle blending affection and respect. “But every time you get there you add to my bowed shoulders and gray hairs.”
As Mr. Hampton was as straight and as any of the boys, while his thick hair showed little signs of the advance of age, everybody laughed. A laugh in which he, too, joined.
“But what I’d like to know,” said Bob, after the laughter had subsided, “is what Mabele did with our radio set. He couldn’t have carried it far alone, and so far as we have been able to discover he had nobody with him.”
“It’s a puzzle,” said Frank. “But he must have hidden it, intending to return for it later, somewhere near Chief Ungaba’s village. At any rate, the report of his trackers that he was never observed to have that piece of baggage with him is satisfactory in one respect. For it means that he was unable in all likelihood to communicate by radio with the enemy, supposing them to have a secret radio station as Mr. Ransome suspects.”
Several days the party spent at Masaka, completing the purchase of supplies to add to their baggage which had been shipped from Entebbe, and in recruiting a new of bearers, one hundred in number. A guard of a dozen trusty fellows in the pay of Mr. Ransome, every one of whom knew how to handle a rifle or revolver, appeared mysteriously from somewhere. And into this number Samba was recruited to his great delight.
“A satisfactory man to have around,” was Mr. Hampton’s dictum, and accordingly Mr. Ransome took him into the force.
“We’ll need the guards, perhaps,” he said. “And I have obtained a permit from the Belgian authorities for them to carry arms. Our own permits as hunters also have been obtained, so now everything is settled.”
Then the party set out for the Mountains of the Moon, lying around Lake Kivu to the west and south. This gem-like lake is in the real heart of Africa, and to get there it was necessary to travel more than three hundred miles west by south. Kivu lies about one hundred and fifty miles west of the southern of Lake Victoria, and between Lakes Edward and Tanganyika.
Day after day the miles were put behind them without any incidents of especial note. Pictures were taken at times, when the occasion warranted. But for several reasons both Mr. Ransome and his hosts were eager to reach the mysterious Mountains of the Moon which stand sentinel over the unexplored heart of the Dark Continent, and so little time was spent in picture-taking, any secured being obtained on the march, so to speak.
For one thing, Mr. Ransome was eager to gain the region about Lake Kivu and the Mountains of the Moon in order to learn as quickly as possible what was afoot amongst the natives, as every now and again reached them of The Prophet’s activities. Evasive though these rumors were, it became increasingly apparent that The Prophet was someone of powerful personality who had obtained a great hold on the minds of the natives and who, if given sufficient time, might be able to unite the warlike and remote tribes under one head and cause serious trouble for the whites by down on their settlements and destroying even the railroad and lines and other slim evidences of civilization in the Lake Victoria region which had been built up through the years.
For another, Mr. Hampton was anxious to reach the region while the , of which native report was more definite than regarding the activities of The Prophet, were still in . A record of them would be something never before obtained and valuable in proportion. Besides, the great mountain region was reputed to be the home not only of elephants, , bush , , and lions, but also of the man-apes or .
To bag of these animals both by gun and by camera would be the crowning achievement of the expedition.
Therefore, the party did not delay on the way but made each day’s march as long as possible. The more so were they content to do this as, after passing Kabale, a tiny frontier post in the mountains of Uganda, two weeks from Masaka, they entered a volcanic region which had been laid waste by of in 1912 where little game was encountered.
By day, in fact, this region was into a silence so uncanny as to affect the nerves of even the boys. For they were accustomed in their travel through central Africa to hear the jungle alive about them. Here long distances were covered where not even the hum of an insect or the call of a bird was to be heard. It was, in fact, as if they were passing through a dead region where even the ground beneath them was of life.
Neither man nor animals were encountered, and glad, indeed, was every member of the party when at length they came to the edge of the mighty African Valley and below them the vast Mfumbiro Plain with craters breaking up the contour in every direction.
This was the region of the volcanoes, and after glimpsing smoking peaks in the distance all day as they approached, the boys now beheld from the edge of a , below which was spread the great plain, three towering with smoke-wreathed summits. Whereas only occasional glimpses had been obtained heretofore, they now could observe the mountains from base to summit.
Never had any of them beheld a more -inspiring sight. And on the edge of a precipice which fell steeply away a matter of two thousand feet to the pl............